Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen.Coming of Age in Second Lifeis the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group. Coming of Age in Second Lifeshows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself.

In December 2006, while conducting an interview for CNET with Daniel Terdiman on her economic assets, the virtual studio in which the interview took place was bombarded by flying animatedpenises and copies of a photo of Graef modified to show her holding a giant penis in her arms. The griefers managed to disrupt the interview sufficiently that Chung was forced to move to another location and ultimately crashed the simulator entirely.[18] Video and images of the incident were posted to the "Second Life Safari" section of Something Awful, and the incident received international notice via blogs including Boing Boing and the online edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. Two weeks later, Anshe's husband, Guntram Graef, issued takedown notices under the DMCA, demanding that newspapers and websites remove photos and videos of the incident and claiming that they violated Graef's copyright in her avatar and other virtual creations. YouTube pulled the videos of the incident as a DMCA violation and banned the account of Second Life Safari, bringing objections from legal experts who considered the work "fair use".[19] A Linden Labs spokesperson suggested that the taking of videos and photos in Second Life should be governed by the same rules as in real life,[20] and an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation compared it "to Armani attempting to restrict news photos of a car crash where one of the drivers was wearing an Armani suit."[21]

After news of these events and the legal objections spread across a number of sites including Slashdot, YouTube changed its rationale for removing copies of the video to terms of use violation, and in an interview Guntram Graef said that issuing the takedown notices had been a mistake. He referred to the images as 'pornographic material' and said The video and pictures are clearly defaming and constitute a sexual assault. He stated that he had originally tried to have the videos removed as a personal attack and infringement on rights, but later changed to a copyright claim when that didn't produce a response. When he realized the issues of censorship, he dropped the copyright claim.[19]

In 2008 Russian opposition leader Gary Kasparov was attacked at a real public event with a flying penis helicopter and what appeared as a real life adaption of the flying penis attack on Anshe Chung. The Kasparov attack was ended within seconds by a guard who destroyed the flying penis aparatus. In contrast CNet and the company Millions of Us who were responsible for securing the event in Second Life had failed to remove the virtual objects for an extended period of time

In December 2006, while conducting an interview for CNET with Daniel Terdiman on her economic assets, the virtual studio in which the interview took place was bombarded by flying animated penises and copies of a photo of Graef modified to show her holding a giant penis in her arms. The griefers managed to disrupt the interview sufficiently that Chung was forced to move to another location and ultimately crashed the simulator entirely.[18] Video and images of the incident were posted to the "Second Life Safari" section of Something Awful, and the incident received international notice via blogs including Boing Boing and the online edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. Two weeks later, Anshe's husband, Guntram Graef, issued takedown notices under the DMCA, demanding that newspapers and websites remove photos and videos of the incident and claiming that they violated Graef's copyright in her avatar and other virtual creations. YouTube pulled the videos of the incident as a DMCA violation and banned the account of Second Life Safari, bringing objections from legal experts who considered the work "fair use".[19] A Linden Labs spokesperson suggested that the taking of videos and photos in Second Life should be governed by the same rules as in real life,[20] and an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation compared it "to Armani attempting to restrict news photos of a car crash where one of the drivers was wearing an Armani suit."[21]

After news of these events and the legal objections spread across a number of sites including Slashdot, YouTube changed its rationale for removing copies of the video to terms of use violation, and in an interview Guntram Graef said that issuing the takedown notices had been a mistake. He referred to the images as 'pornographic material' and said The video and pictures are clearly defaming and constitute a sexual assault. He stated that he had originally tried to have the videos removed as a personal attack and infringement on rights,

Researchers at Japan's Keio University have created an experimental headset designed to monitor brain waves that allowed a man who had been paralyzed for more than 30 years to control a Second Life avatar using only his thoughts.

I believe that any college or university which accepts US federal dollars and requires students to use second life as a classroom space is in violation of regulation 508 because SL is not accessible to individuals who are blind.

Third, efforts to introduce games and problem-based instruction as educational strategies have focused on adding a “game layer” on top of the SL environment rather than using the environment itself as a game.

Few hold jobs. Comparatively few even “get off the island.” This is especially true of those educators who participate through the auspices of a private island. They’re very busy controlling the environment to suit their own purposes without really taking the time to understand the culture and environment. It’s no wonder they’re unable to recognized the inherent value of the space.

Conclusion: Teachers want to use the space. Most of them want to use it for the wrong reasons. Many don’t have a clue what it means to be “in the world” in any real sense, instead focusing on imposing RL constraints on SL constructs — even when those constraints are irrelevant.